A Peacock Ready to Fly

The problem with government, especially government by the people, is that people tend to be jerks. Not intentionally. They just don’t take the time to grasp that just because something isn’t important to you that it might not be important to a lot of other people. It’s the limits of our own experience, the inability to see beyond our own doorstep, to villainize and trivialize those who dare to think differently than us, that is the real failing of American democracy.

I was having some mouth trouble at the time, and so you’ll excuse me if I mumble here and there (especially near the end when my anesthetic was wearing off), but never mind that. You’ll still enjoy it and realize just how cool I am.

Death’s Excellent Vacation came out last Tuesday, and boy, howdy, am I amped to be part of that. This is a great chance to reach out to a new audience, and I just hope, even though most people will be buying the anthology for other writers, that they’ll find something worthwhile about my own contribution.

The story is an original ode to Lovecraft called The Innsmouth Nook. As usual, it doesn’t have anything to do with anything else I’ve written (other than my love of monsters). I wondered, after I submitted it, if perhaps it might have been better to write something related to what I’d already written. Maybe a short story with Monster or Lucky. Probably would’ve been a smarter idea. But it really isn’t in my nature apparently to revisit old characters and ideas. Not yet anyway.

I’m sure that will change sooner or later. Eventually, an idea will be so much like an idea I’ve already written that there will be no point in doing everything from scratch. Even the pulpy story I’m working on now bears some passing resemblance to The Automatic Detective, but it doesn’t quite fit in the same framework. Still, I’m not an endless pool of ideas and unless I start writing horror or romantic comedies, there’s only so many permutations of the sci fi / fantasy genre before I might as well just go back to the well.

Saw The Other Guys. Funny movie. I don’t know why exactly. It’s completely ridiculous. There’s no effort to have the story make sense. The characters are absurd, the situations bizarre, and a big part of the humor is that you just don’t know what to expect other than weirdness. It works though, and hats off to a cast of talented actors who manage to make the stupid brilliant.

Pimps Don’t Cry will play at my wedding, even if it’s a ridiculous and inappropriate song. I just hope that Will Ferrell and his talented friends appreciate that.